Spiffy:

Iffy:

Will there be enough story, and will the dodgy voice acting bug the smash-happy?

In the past couple years, gamers have lived through the best (Spider-Man 2) and worst (Hulk) games that comic book characters could offer. With most releases skewing towards the lousy end of the scale, you'd be forgiven for giving up on the genre altogether. But as bad as the last Hulk game was, there isn't another game that promises to live up to the name on the box like The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Freed of the constraints of a crappy film license, the folks at Radical Entertainment have come up with a game that lives up to what we expect of the big green guy. Players step in as the Hulk -- no Bruce Banner, no need to manage transformation. Though Banner appears in cutscenes, so far I haven't played one second in the shoes of that puny human.

The goal? Break everything. Hulk punches, leaps, pounces, thunderclaps, kicks, smashes, and damn near obliterates everything in the game. Only larger buildings seem able to withstand his efforts, and since we haven't played the entire game, there may well be some powers that will even take down the Baxter Building. (That's just a colorful example, by the way, since the FF headquarters doesn't actually appear.)

Ultimate Destruction is put together much like Activision's Spider-Man 2. In the beginning of the game, at least, players operate from Doc Sampson's main base -- an abandoned church -- and can jump into various points in a nearby city and desert. Within these areas, markers can be accessed to activate story missions and side goals.

The story missions are pretty routine: destroy resistance, retrieve an object, or protect an object or area. Thankfully, between the map, onscreen icons, and not-so subtle cutscene hints, objectives are always clear. Some will require the Hulk to find a jump point (easily identified in green on the map) to deliver something to Samson. Other missions simply end once the objectives are ticked off, GTA style.

But there's also a lot of free roaming to do, and with the powers available, it's fun stuff. Citizens flee from the green behemoth, and cops and military personnel are drawn to him like tentacles to hentai. The Hulk is fast, and can leap nearly any building. Structures which can't be leapt or destroyed can be climbed, and Banner's alter ego can even run up walls. Don't ask how; just enjoy it.